


Out of the Mouths of Babes

by izumi2



Series: List of Questions (Civil War Team Iron Man) [9]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: And oblivous, Civil War Team Iron Man, History Lessons TM, In a cute and innocent way, Not Steve Friendly, On the Spot, Other, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Rhodey is having fun!, Vision is young!, Who has acess to the internet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-24 13:22:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14356365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izumi2/pseuds/izumi2
Summary: Vision is still unused to emotions, he much prefers logic and reasoning and he has been very confused lately.Or...The Exvengers only ever watch the news when the shoe fits, don't they?#Team Iron Man.~*~All my fics will now be moderated due to sudden influx of trolls that seem unable to read or heed the tags... or hashtags... or warnings...





	Out of the Mouths of Babes

**Author's Note:**

> This... did not turn out the way I planed it... oh, well, I had a lot of fun, *grins*.

_**What doesn't Steve Rogers know?** _

Tony was giddy, it has been years since the last time he felt this excited about a new project but this was it.

It took a while, but with Rhodey at the screening and recruiting process, the Avengers – and they really should change the name because really? Embodied what Rogers so strongly endorsed: let them knock our door down and only then do something – were finally a team.

They were all very impressed with the Compound as headquarters but when the subject about living arrangements was brought up…Luke, of all people, was the first to object, Jessica a silent shadow right to his side, “Look, man, we really loved the base but… we have our own houses.”

“Not to mention that the Compound is a little out of ways from our job, Tony.” Carol always the more practical, motioned for herself and Rhodey who shook his head a little.

“Tones, I love you, so I never really commented on it before. But just because we volunteer together doesn’t mean we have to live in your house, too military and I have enough of that in the tours, you learn to appreciate your own space.”

Jennifer was the one to put more succinctly, “We are perfectly capable of maintaining ourselves. If we get injured in an Avengers’ mission then we will be very thankful for the medical facilities, Tony. But this,” she gestured to the ridiculously lavishing living room and open plan professional kitchen, “we are not your kids. We appreciate the thought but this is a little insulting actually.”

When all Tony could do was squawk indignantly at… everything Jennifer said, the lawyer rolled her eyes, “You trying to… decorate bedrooms, pay for our food and the roof over our heads… this is nesting, and what is this?” she brandished the black credit card like a sword before firmly giving it back, “Is this for us to buy something cool?” and she got a really devilish look that made Tony want to jump behind Rhodey… who was laughing himself silly, the traitor, “Look, we are grown ass adults, so if your biological clock is ticking at you, talk to Pepper.”

The night ended with laugher and food and movies.

~*~

And here they were a year later and the project for the new Defenders Compound, the public that liked a good destruction – buildings going down – was there to witness, this was the date that the media was forever shouting for the last 365 days. The Compound was really big so of course when it went down, it would be pretty spectacular.

Tony looked at his watch again, 11:58, “Ok, everybody, two minutes out!”

It took a year of hard work and discussing the blueprints, _“No, Tony, an indoor wavemaker is not a necessity.”_

_“Says who?”_

But the newest Compound was just beginning to be built, it would be even bigger than the old ones but the insides will be very different. The kitchen would be staffed, there would be a few entertainment rooms but more meetings rooms, the tech was top of the line, the security only bested by Stark Tower’s. The whole thing was his baby, so much that Tony could almost ignore the fact that the president just got American pardons for the Exvengers – Tony still giggled a bit about that – this morning. Not his problem, not anymore.

“OK! Out with the old, in with the new!” he bellowed excitedly to the crew, who rolled their eyes but smiled and hit it.

_“Boss! There are heat signatures inside!”_

“WHAT?!”

BOOM!

~*~

The first thing Steve heard was arguing.

It came from a little distance away, the voices sounded blocked, a door?

“This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.” No, they weren’t arguing, at least, no really.

“You need to stop laughing before we have to inevitably answer some questions.”

“Relax, Carol, did you forget that my best friend is Tony Stark? I perfected the art of bland expressions even if all I wanted was to laugh until my guts exploded.”

“… that is just childish.”

“…Tony rubs off on you. But c’mon, what were they even doing there? How much you wanna bet that, much like in the Accords business, none of them watched or looked up for the current news?”

“The Compound being demolished to make place for the new UN approved Defenders Compound has been announced world wide a year ago, same thing with the other continents' headquarters.”

“I hear your disbelief…if I’m right, we are getting Chinese tonight.”

“Fine but if you’re not… pizza, I just got back from a two month tour, I wanna pizza!”

He heard no more.

~*~

The next time he was awake and fairly sure he could jump out of bed, perhaps not literally but Steve got up feeling worse.

There was a nurse adjusting the IV line when she noticed he was awake, Steve got a reaction that he never saw before, not from someone like her. Thin, but not fit, short – barely 5 feet tall, innocent eyes that were currently wide in… fear? She hightailed out of the room as fast as her legs could carry her.

Not even five minutes later, Steve heard calm footsteps in the hallway, a woman if the clack of high heels was anything to go by. A series of knocks before a tall blonde woman in an Air Force uniform entered accompanied by an unassuming average sized woman. And yet, despite her ordinary appearance when in comparison to the almost amazon in military garb, it was the second woman that held Steve’s attention, something about her was familiar.

“Mr. Rogers? I am Air Force Colonel Carol Danvers, this is Jennifer Walters. Do you recall what happened?”

“I…” Steve forced his mind.

They were back, the feeling of relief and happiness only lasted until the first lawyers told them that the Compound was no longer in use. The rest of what they said didn’t even register, they just stormed out right towards the Compound, on foot it was a very tiring walk. Steve never noticed how far away from the city the Compound was, whenever they wanted to get in or out they would either use the Quinjet or one of the cars, poor Wanda was dead on her feet by the time they got there. The huge crowd on the outside was barely an afterthought, all that was on his mind was to confront Tony on forbidding them from returning home.

“Yes! Tony… he just took the Compound from us, this was our home!”

The colonel only sighed, “Dr. Stark merely sold the Compound’s property for the UN to use as the new Defenders HQ. And as far as I was aware, the only name on the deed was Dr. Stark’s, can you legally prove that Dr. Stark gave you the Compound and surrounding properties and the correspondent proof that you paid the taxes involved?”

“What? I… of course it was our home!”

“Can you legally prove that?”

“Did Tony send you? This is just plain petty, well you can tell him that we’re not falling for it! Whatever this show is.”

“Mr. Rogers, this is no show. Dr. Stark may have let you in his property without his presence, but since two years ago when he sold it to the UN, if you cannot provide proof of ownership, then you illegally entered UN property.”

“He sold it?”

Carol was beginning to regret volunteering for this and she already lost the bet to Jim anyways.

~*~

The next time the Exvengers met the New Avengers – or Defenders, the name was still TBD – they were all more or less healed, aside from Steve that had Enhanced healing, all the others just had an arm or a leg in casts.

“Really?” Clint sneered, “Stark doesn’t even have the courage to face us?”

“Unfortunately Dr. Stark had a business engagement so he was forced to forego this meeting.” It was the same woman that was with the colonel in Steve’s room.

“A business meeting? Couldn’t he find a better excuse?” Steve couldn’t believe in the billionaire’s unreliability.

“Well, you see, he is not the only one that had to miss this fun, Hope was with him since they are in talks about some tech thing… in Tokyo.” Luke leaned back in the too small chair, wanting to be anywhere else but here.

“And why would we ask them to stay when their business expertise was needed elsewhere and we are all perfectly capable of doing the job?” Stephen was so unimpressed that it was kinda hard to stare him in the eye.

This made them shut up and Lang cringe. Oh yeah, they were something or the other, right? Carol cracked her neck before getting the conversation back on track.

“First things first: what were you doing inside the Compound?”

“It was our home and Stark just went and destroyed it!” Wanda Maximoff, there was a reason Stephen Strange was called for this meeting and it had nothing to do with mental games due to the fact that his facial hair resembled Tony’s… well not much, as far as Carol was concerned but she wouldn’t put it past Rhodes. Although her fellow colonel had a fairly good poker face on, she had known him for years and could recognize a fit of giggles about to explode.

“I will ask all of you for the same legal proof I asked Mr. Rogers.” Carol’s no-nonsense voice was eerily similar to Rhodes’… who knew that if he tried to talk he would begin to laugh.

“You see? This is why we left! Red tape everywhere and here you are, using it to your advantage.”

Rogers’ words prompted Jennifer to take the lead, “Red tape? Because we asked for proof that you owned the building that was recently purchased and demolished? So let me see, if some random person walked up to you and said that the car you are driving is theirs, ‘because they said so’, then the car must be theirs?”

“I don’t know how much you are aware of the details in war, Mr. Rogers, but what you are saying is comparable. In war, families and parties must protect what they own by shooting down the ones that want to take it from them. They leave the house, and it’s “up for grabs”. Is this the logic you are following?” Vision’s complete deadpan took everyone in Rogers’ team back.

Steve gawked for a second, “Of course not, this is just absurd, what I mean is that this was our home!”

“And yet your names have never been on any document proving that the property ever belonged to you. So you are either saying that you are using the war logic of property ownership or that you owe quite a few millions in taxes.” Vision was confused; either option could only end in Mr. Rogers’ immediate, if metaphorical, demise.

The Super Soldier would either face charges of taxes evasion, probably ending up in jail due to the enormous amount of money or he is experiencing psychological healthy issues. Going by what Mr. Rogers had said so far, by having flashbacks of his time in the war.

“Taxes?”

Vision’s confusion cleared a little, perhaps, much like himself, Mr. Rogers was just a little disoriented, “Yes, the IRS has an annual limit that is currently fourteen thousand dollars, which is actually an aggregate limit for the gifts one can give and receive. I know that Dr. Stark has a very business inclined mind, therefore his annual earnings would cover the taxes that giving a building like the Avengers Compound and the surrounding properties would pertain, however I was unaware that you were also capable of covering this kind of expenses.”

“IRS?” Steve’s mind was whirling. He didn’t understand a single thing Vision just said, aside from taxes but what does that have to do with anything?

Vision blinked before his expression changed to mild embarrassment, “Forgive me, Mr. Rogers. According to your files, you fell with the aircraft, Valkyrie, in 1944 so of course you would be unaware of that historical fact.” the synthezoid tilted his head to the side, considering.

“Although, according to my research, teenagers learn most relevant American historical events in four years of the American high school and you have been found and successfully awoken in six years already.” He frowned, “Even taking into account the time you allotted for SHIELD or Avengers missions, it is no more than your average high school student with a part time job, especially if it’s only a few subjects instead of the entire course, math hardly changed, although the same cannot be said for the harder sciences thanks to the many scientific contributions in the last half a century. I presume that social sciences, the humanization of medicine and history would be essential for someone in your situation.” Once again, Vision drifted a little before returning his gaze to the gaping man.

“Well, the IRS, or Internal Revenue Service went by other names but its primary job is collecting taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of federal statutory tax law of the United States. The duties of the IRS include providing tax assistance to taxpayers and pursuing and resolving instances of erroneous or fraudulent tax filings. The IRS has also overseen various benefits programs, and enforces portions of the Affordable Care Act. It went through… rebranding, so to speak, in 1953 and being significantly reorganized. Aside from its responsibility, the agency became almost unrecognizable.” And then, Vision frowned again before a look of childish happiness took over.

“Oh!” the synthezoid looked like he could punch his own palm in wonder of his insight, “Now I understand your reaction towards the Sokovia Accords. It’s not only the geopolitical history of the time you spent preserved in subzero temperatures that you deemed unimportant, but geopolitics in general, regardless of time period. When the former Secretary of State Ross presented the finished document, I was confused over your shock, and I now see it was because you didn’t know about the Accords at all, how could or even would you?” Vision was truly in a roll, delighted at finding the final piece of the puzzle, ignoring or not even noticing his captivated or deeply ashamed audience.

It really didn’t help that though it all, Vision’s voice was even, calm or just mildly excited. The Exvengers, Steve really, since he was the one being put on the spotlight, didn’t even get the mercy of being able to be angry or insulted, hard to when in the face of someone that was so clearly leaving all emotion aside in favor of pure reason, showing that even in tone.

 “Your argument about the ‘Committee sending us somewhere we shouldn’t go or stopping us from going somewhere we should’ is easily countered by the results of the Nuremberg Trial, the most important precedent set is already answer enough for you fear. However, the trials happened in 1945 and 1946, and naturally… you were ignorant about it.”

“Amendments to documents and laws signed centuries ago are done, perhaps not easily, but they are very possible, hence the Bill of Rights in 1789, meaning the first ten amendments of the United Stated Constitution a mere year after the document was ratified in 1788, long before your birth. In 1992 there was the Twenty-seventh Amendment, more than two hundred years later, proving that no matter traditions and egos, change is possible and the only way to have real improvements.”

“All the same, you refused to express your concerns in Vienna because you were so sure that amendments to your liking were impossible, that the document was so fundamentally flawed that it was impossible to be fixed. Regardless of the herculean efforts this nation’s forefathers put in a document that is vigor for two centuries and all the laws that it inspired and are not being tossed but being tirelessly debated and I ask myself if that was another sign that you are completely ignorant, not only about the history that you lost due to circumstances outside of your control, but of any political facts all together or if you are simply overly indulged for believing that your needs and amendments should be met before ever agreeing over something that more than half of the countries in this world trusted to have their voices heard.”

“The UN is not the Constitution, its goals are so much more ambitions, borderline impossible. From what I have heard you speak about your beliefs, Mr. Rogers, I would think that the UN would be the only organization that you would ever back. At its core, what the UN wants is basically global peace, something seemly so unattainable, idealistic to the point of childishness. And yet… they still bend, they are still malleable and they admit when something isn’t working. The Kyoto Protocol had a list of 192 countries that were parties to it, a far superior number to the initial 117 of the Accords, and the Protocol was signed in 1997 and was only put into effectiveness in 2005, completely expired in 2012, to date it only had 84 signatures, it wasn’t the majority of the world, but the UN still fought for it. It was about something that, in theory, was a certain way to keep our planet healthy: decrease greenhouse gas emission. In spite of it, Mr. Rogers, you called the UN a government with agendas and assumed those agendas were nefarious.”

“A week after the Civil War, you made a citation that had ever since been identified as Margaret ‘Peggy’ Carter’s, ‘Even when the whole world is telling you to move, it’s your duty to plant yourself like a tree and say ‘No, you move’ as a way to… explain? Perhaps justify your stance? Whatever your reasons, Ms. Carter was referencing to the fact that she was a woman in what one considers a primarily male’s job. She was talking about gender equality, something that was not considered a right until 1988, something that, ironically, the UN fights for. Conditions that you seem completely unacquainted of.”

“And what happened a few weeks ago, you clearly didn’t know that Dr. Stark sold the Compound over a year ago to the UN and the plans to demolish it despite the multitude of media coverage the decision received, perhaps you weren’t interested enough, and yet it was important for your situation, and you were completely oblivious. Mr. Rogers,” Vision now looked like he was seconds away from taking Steve’s hands into his in earnest, “It’s never too late to learn. ‘Wisdom’ is recognizing that you don’t know but ignorance is the true sadness: you are unaware of your own lack of knowledge. You don’t know that you don’t know. I believe I heard the perfect phrase for it just last year, ‘Admitting you have a problem is half the solution’.”

Vision smiled, innocently, happily and hopeful of Rogers’ answer… who seemed to have lost the ability to talk and appeared to have gone into shock…or maybe it’s just all the blood rushing to his face. It was a little hard to even describe his expression, a mix of deep mortification…perchance fear?

And then…

“Oh, internet, this is so going all over you.” Rhodey had long gave up the fight against his almost maniac grin, his hands steadily holding his StarkPhone and recording the whole circus so he can share with Tony and then the world later on. He made sure to get a close to Natashalie’s constipated face, so priceless!

Carol rolled her eyes by his left, “You’re watching too much TV.”

“How would you know?”

“This sounded quoted.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> When you really look at the whole picture... it's not that Steve doesn't know what happened and the precedents set in the seven decades he was on ice... it's that he doesn't like History!!! *eyes wide*.
> 
> Also... I could NOT resist having point out to Tony that his insistence of feeding people, giving bedrooms, having a fully decorated house... Tony, sweetie, you're nesting, but the Exvengers are, in theory, adults... LOL SOOO much!


End file.
